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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

After we ate dinner and opened our presents, we decided to go look at tacky Christmas lights. I tried to map out our course using a tacky lights tour address list, but couldn't figure out how to see them all in the least amount of time, and in the most efficient way, so we decided to just drive around and see what we happened to see.

We first went to the West End to Kayhoe Rd., off Springfield, to see a pair of houses Dave saw last night after a bridal consultation. Both were good, but one had the lights timed out to blink to the beat of Christmas music on 102.9FM. Not sure how they did it, but it was AWESOME!

Then we decided to go see how the rich people decorate for Christmas, so we headed over to River Road. We drove around a few neighborhoods, and based on what I was seeing, I decided that I wanted to start documenting a tacky tree tour, instead of a tacky light tour. Those rich people sure do know how to tackily decorate a tree! Some pictures are attached, along with a photo of one family's set of 3 porch monkeys (sorry, they are literally porch monkeys), designed after "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" and dressed up for Christmas. I can't believe they got that past the HOA.

Enjoy the pics...

Ok, so then we drove further down River Road towards Parham and 8220 River Road is so overly decorated we had to turn around to get pictures. We couldn't just slow down in front because there were too many cars. So we pulled into the driveway and I got out to take some pics, but I tripped over my pantleg and put out my hands to brace myself to fall, not remembering that the camera's neck strap was not around my neck! You guessed it, the camera smashed into several pieces in 8220 River Road's driveway. As I collected the pieces without saying a word and put them in the front seat, Dave looked at them in horror. I asked hopefully if the camera was alright and I could tell by his face that it was not. The lens is broken, the body is broken, and the piece that holds them together that is normally attached to the body was stuck to the lens. Not ideal. I even cracked the UV filter in half. This driveway must have been made of some serious bricks!

I feel really bad and now I need to go shopping online for the cheapest D80 or D90 I can find! And if anyone has a 18-200 Nikon lens sitting around collecting dust, I need it!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Wow...last week ranks up there as one of the worst weeks ever. I felt numb, and was going through the motions, but I didn't accomplish anything, at work or otherwise.

Dwayne's service Friday was fitting. Even though the officiant had never met Dwayne, I could tell he made a great effort to learn about him, his family, and his life. He told some second-hand stories about Dwayne's early school days, practical jokes that he played on people or were played on him, and listed some of Dwayne's many accomplishments.

Some of Dwayne's friends told funny stories about him, and his best friend relayed details of a conversation he and Dwayne had about death and how they wanted people to grieve for them. Not surprisingly, Dwayne said he wanted people to grieve for him for a week. Robert convinced him that was a long time to grieve, and Dwayne lowered it to 5 days. Robert persisted that people have lives, and have other stuff to do, so Dwayne said "OK, 4 days, but that's as low as I'll go!" So Robert said he was satisfied. If he only knew how soon he'd have to be holding up his end of the bargain. So sad.

Then the officiant referenced a book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which analyzes Joseph Campbell's theory about the formula of the hero story and illustrates his theory by analyzing stories from mythology on that incorporate that formula. In a nutshell, the hero is always born in a remote place, cut off from society. The hero receives a call to leave this remote place, and move to a more bustling, dangerous, "armpit" of a place to pursue his calling for adventure. Then he meets people he should or should not trust, chooses between good and evil, goes through trials to prepare him for his ultimate battle, often finding a mentor to guide him through those trials, and then the climax of the story is the battle for which he has been preparing. Almost always, the hero survives the trial, and then comes the denoument, where all the characters who have interacted with the hero along his journey come together to help bring the story to a close. Tragically, sometimes the hero has to die, and as untimely as his death may be, the world is changed for the better as are the people who knew him. His friends as companions are made better people, motivated to continue the struggle, cause, or journey.

I must read this book...and you should too!

Then he made some observations about Dwayne's life and related them to this hero formula theory. Dwayne was born and raised in Deltaville, VA, which is the epitome of a remote, cut off place. According to Wikipedia, it is home to 500-800 full-time residents, most of which are retirees. I'm not sure what Dwayne's call to adventure was, but he moved from his home to Richmond, certainly an armpit compared to Middlesex County, to pursue a career. He recently received another call to adventure when he was offered the opportunity to move to Plano, TX, to further pursue his career. I'd like to think this was not going to be his ultimate battle; that his funeral was not the denoument of Dwayne's journey, but I'm sad that I won't get to see the hero of this story face his ultimate battle and survive.

Sometimes movies are so good, they end leaving the fans wanting more, and I wish this story had a sequel.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cecily and I talked today about stuff that she and Dwayne's friends wanted to do for his services. We brainstormed a bit and came up with some things. Cecily brought over 3 display boards tonight and we put 2 of them together. One has work accomplishments and recognition and the other is pictures of him, his family, and his best friend, Jager! Tomorrow we'll make the 3rd, which will have pictures of him with his friends and pictures he took while traveling - he was a great photographer, who knew?

I hope these make visitors at his memorial and funeral remember him as the fun, friendly guy he was in life, and not think about him in death.

The blank spot at the top of the first one is for a blown-up picture of him that we need to print.

I'll be making a slide show of these and other pictures of him and his family/friends with his favorite songs playing in the background. His going away party was planned for this weekend, so the party is still on, but unfortunately I fear that the mood will be much different. Hopefully the slide show will prompt some laughs and conversation about his goofy self.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

In March, when we were unpacking some boxes at the Millers', we came across all of Nate's high school t-shirts. We all have them - we'll never wear them again, but we don't want to get rid of them - ring a bell? So I asked him if I could take them home with me to make something out of them, he humored me and I assume forgot all about it.

This is the kind of project that you know will take 1 or 2 days to complete, but it takes you much more time to gear up to buckle down and just do it! This is mostly because if you mess something up, you can't just go buy more fabric. You have potentially flubbed up this awesome thing that is full of memories!

I decided early this fall that I was going to put together this quilt and give it to him as a birthday gift, so that gave me a hard deadline to finish it - I figured if I handled this the way I handle things at work, that was the only way I'd get it done.

The final push I needed was the sale at Hancock Fabrics on Black Friday - the fleece I needed for the backing and the quilter's cotton I needed for the sashing and corner pieces were all on sale, and I had a coupon and a gift card! Perfect motivation :)

So I picked up all the supplies I needed and spent all Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend stitching this quilt together. I think it turned out really nice, and now I feel obligated to finish the one I told Dave I'd make him years ago :)

Monday, December 8, 2008

To say Dwayne Collins was a "great" guy sounds so cliche right now and doesn't even come close to doing him the justice he deserves. He was the kind of person people want to be: free-spirited, but responsible when it counts; smart, but not cocky or condescending. He could command an audience without being an ass. He could make you feel like shit, just so he could be the person to build you back up. That last one might sound like a bad thing, but it was a way for him to challenge you to test your reaction.

He was my teacher, my co-worker, my friend. He was my older brother when I needed him to be, and he was my mortal enemy when I wanted him to be. I will miss him everyday. The last thing I said to him at a work lunch on Friday was "FUCK OFF," and I know that he knows I meant "I love you and I'll see you soon, buddy." That's how our relationship was. I love him and will cherish memories of him always.

Monday, December 1, 2008

I used some vacation time this afternoon to go renew my license, heeding the warning in the paper that, in simple terms, if I let it expire I'd regret it. Not sure what the consequences would be, but I didn't want to find out.

As I left my house, I was already in a bad mood after flashing back to last Friday - a day that was perfect to complete this task - when I turned the corner and was amazed at how empty the parking lot was, until the guy in the car in front of me informed me that they were closed until Monday. Of course they were.

When I turned the corner, I saw that the main and overflow parking lots were both full, and people were waiting idly for a parking space to open up. This was going to be fun. I finally found a space, and walked in to find about 5 of the ~100 chairs unoccupied, but for one reason or another, none of those 5 appealed to me, so I got my number (another annoyance) and sat in the back, leaning on a counter.

My number was A007, and as I scanned the 9 (out of 20) open windows, I noticed that they were only on A090, not to mention the B's, C's, D's, E's, and F's that were in front of me. They called a couple of A's but then nothing. 30 minutes later, still no progress for the A's. Other letters were progressing nicely.

So, you're thinking "Didn't you take anything with you to occupy your time and keep you sane?" Well, yes I did. I brought New Moon with me, but didn't feel like reading, because I didn't want to miss my chance for people-watching. In hindsight, good decision.

The 5 open seats must have been just as unappealing to the people behind me, as they remained open while I was standing there. However, as people were called to their windows, their seats were almost instantly taken by someone else. One time, a guy got up and immediately turned around (not sure why he got up, maybe he thought he heard his number) to find his seat taken. He was not happy about it! He said nothing to the man who took his seat, just stood over him for a few seconds, looking at him like your dad looks at you when you've disappointed him - you know the one! There may have been a hand gesture but no words. Eventually he just walked away and leaned up against the wall - he also found that better than those 5 empty seats.

I spent most of the 84 minutes of waiting observing the family next to me. The mom had 2 daughters with her - Madison and Brooke (I know the names from her scolding the older one because she had to pee and there were too many people there for her to go by herself and the name written on the sippy cup of the younger one, who repeatedly dropped mom's keys on the ground to get a laugh out of her older sister) - and her other 2 children, Elizabeth and Ethan, were with her in spirit. Elizabeth was at home working on a maze project that mom thought wasn't due until March, but apparently it's due soon because mom wasn't happy that the wood in the garage wasn't good enough, and that she wanted new wood. Not sure what Ethan's deal was. I'm not a stalker, this is just what I gathered from my perch.

Once my number was finally called, I was out of there within minutes. Then I went to Target to get some stocking stuffers for Dave, and came home to watch "John Adams." Awesome if you have 7+ hours of free time and like semi-accurate historical drama.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

From my Bonnie:

30 skills every woman should know before she turns 30

1. Hard boil an egg 2. Diplomatically tell Mom to butt-out 3. Ace a job interview 4. Ask a man out 5. Send a thoughtful thank you note 6. Listen to a friend in need 7. Ask for help 8. Effectively end an unhealthy relationship (romantic or platonic in nature) 9. Beautifully wrap a gift 10. Say “no” gracefully 11. Whip up a great dinner with the five items in her fridge 12. Forget pleasing him, by 30 a woman should be able to tell her man exactly how to please her 13. Sew a button 14. Mix a kick-ass cocktail 15. Take off her bra without removing her shirt 16. Apply lip gloss in the dark 17. Balance her checkbook 18. Create a budget 19. Find the best deal 20. Negotiate a salary and/or pay raise 21. Read a map 22. Hail a cab 23. Say something in French just for the hell of it 24. Apologize when she’s wrong 25. Dress for her body type 26. Change a flat (or know whom to call to come change it) 27. Spot a fake (handbag, diamond, potential friend…) 28. Feign interest 29. Know what to tip on a $25 dinner bill 30. Hold a baby (Hey, someone you know is bound to have one sooner or later)

Except for #20, I'm good. I've never worked at a place where I was able to negotiate anything. I consider that a good thing.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

If you've ever worked in a restaurant you may not be so excited about these, but OMG, how cute are these silverware packs I made for the luncheon Thursday?

And I'm modest, too.

I did all the shopping for the shower today, except for cheese cubes and crackers because I left the list in the car and forgot them. I set up the food table and am in the process of putting all the favor bags together. The only thing left to do is set up the outside tables, but I'm waiting for the last minute to see what the weather does.

...and seriously, with the weather? Doesn't mother nature know I'm trying to have an outside party this week?

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Today we put down mulch along the driveway - Dave killed some crabgrass a while ago but we have decided grass may never grow or look good there because the crabgrass roots start under the driveway. I suppose we should have thought about that before we had it paved, but we didn't.

We also re-mulched the flower beds after cutting down all the flowers for the winter. We planted late this year and didn't get blooms like we would have liked, so hopefully in the spring it will look better.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

I'm trying to get the house set up for Ashley's bridal luncheon next week, so today we started by taking all the furniture off the deck and setting up the gazebo. Now we're committed and the weather better be good on Thursday! It was 85 this morning when we were putting it together, so I am hoping it stays this warm :)

Here are some pics...now we're off to Lowe's to get some mulch to winterize the front flower beds - not for the shower, they just need to be done and I'm on vacation so I have time to do it!

Monday, October 27, 2008

I have finally made up my mind, no more waffling. I'm voting for Obama! If I'm wrong and he turns out to be a terrorist, the anti-Christ, and/or a Muslim extremist, I will admit that I was wrong...

After the Joe the Plumber debacle - finding out that he's worried about paying taxes for a plumbing business for no reason because he doesn't pay them anyways, and he's not really a plumber - and the endless negative ads making false claims about Obama, I decided that the things I dislike about McCain outweigh the things I like.

Saturday night, after Frog Level, Dave and I headed over to the local campaign office and picked up a sign for our yard. I hope it makes it to election day...a lot in our area have been vandalized or stolen.

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd grace the internet with an entry about my weekend...

Friday night, while the Millers were at the SHS game for Nate's reunion weekend, I sat at home bored, and looked though old yearbooks reminiscing.

Five minutes later, still bored...I forced Dave to take me to Target so we could replace the mini-blinds that the cat decided didn't need to be hanging in the window any longer. She was high on kitty crack and decided to chew on the string and then run away quickly with the string still in her mouth. The bracket holding up the blinds came crashing down and little pieces of plastic went flying all over! She's still in the dog/cathouse.

Anyways, apparently plantation blinds are the preferred window covering of Target shoppers, so there were no blinds to choose from. I thought seriously about transitioning to the new version, but then added in my head how many windows I would need to redo, and decided against it :)

Wal-mart was a sure bet for mini-blinds, but the crowd, traffic, and general dirtiness made it almost unbearable, but mission accomplished. To top it off, when I got home and tried to install said blinds, I realized I had measured wrong (twice) and now I have to go back to exchange them! I'm putting that off.

Saturday was the Frog Level Fall Festival - and as you can see from the quality of the website, it's kind of a big deal. We picked up some Brunswick Stew, looked at the vendors (one was giving away free water and balked when we declined her offer), and paid $1 for an Obama bumper sticker because they didn't have any yard signs.

Then I came home and took a nap under my fluffy down comforter. I love fall weekends...

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

As if finding Christ's Home Office didn't give away how awesome this trip has been, I wanted to share some details :)

I came here to relax, and that goal has been accomplished. I've had alone time cruising around looking at the scenery, singing at the top of my lungs, have not thought about work (crap, until now!), and have enjoyed being my own boss for a couple days. Not that having people around is a bad thing, but for the anti-social part in me, a trip like this is needed once in a while :)

I woke up super early Friday morning to get a picture I scoped out when I first got here (red door pic below)...after I got my shot, I drove around all the back roads and visited the Amish farms that have shops attached. I didn't buy any quilts, though a certain green and lilac one was calling my name. I didn't run over any Amish kids riding their scooters in the middle of the road. Then I went back to the B&B (house pic below) and took a nap. What a life....

Around dinnertime, I went to the Sight and Sound Millennium Theater to see "In the Beginning." I highly recommend seeing a show at this theater once in your life! The building is amazing, the sets were unbelievable, and sheepies ran down the aisle right next to me during the show!

The only questionable thing about the show was the fact that when Adam was naming all the animals, he came to one and said "I might call you crocodile later, but for now, you're an alligator." It may have been the other way around, but you get the point, and I thought the show was trying to include evolution in the mix...but then when God and Adam came to the dinosaurs, Adam named them and God interrupted and said something like "I didn't create those animals but they exist with us..." I don't get that. Thoughts?

This morning I slept in and walked around the outlet malls, but surprisingly, none of the stores called my name. Now I'm back to Panera, blogging, and winding down to come home. I've seen all the Amish I can see. Back to reality...

Thursday, September 18, 2008

On the way to PA today I crossed over the Susquehanna River, through the Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant. On one side, all you can see is water, and you feel like it's 2 feet below the road...but on the other side, you see NOTHING but rocks and a gulch - at least that's what I'm calling it.

The picture shows the gulch side. Imagine driving across that and being stopped by DOT working on the road. Those who know me well know I am not a fan of bridges...high ones, low ones, rickety ones, steel ones, pretty much all bridges. But this one is by far the scariest ever!

What if the dam broke? what if it rained really hard and the water washed away the plant, while I'm driving across it? These are the things I think about on my way across.

Other than that, the trip was uneventful, and now I am sitting in Panera so I can check out where I should go while I'm here. I haven't seen a buggy yet, but I saw a Yacob plowing his field with his Big John horse (if you don't get those references, you should visit Amish country more often).

Oh, and Dave will be happy that I did not pick up a miniature horse or lab pup at a roadside stand. They were cheap, and cute...

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Last weekend we traveled to Jacksonville, NC, to welcome LCPL Albrecht from Iraq. The hotel was really nice, we got to sleep till noon Saturday and Sunday, and we had plenty of time to explore the town.

However...

We knew Billy's battalion would be arriving on September 7, but that's about all we knew. Where would they land, what time would they land, how many stops would they have to make before they get to the reception site? Nobody knew the answers to these questions, and tension among the group rose and rose until we were all about to explode. I think we were all so excited to see Billy and were frustrated because the chances of seeing him before we had to come home grew more and more slim.

Saturday night, after a road trip to Emerald Isle and some shopping, Ashley, whose Indian name would be "resourceful one," got on the internets and "the Google" and found a message board for families of CLB6, which Billy is a part of. It seemed like the other families had the same concerns we had, and were just as frustrated at the lack of information available. But she found a hot line number, called it, and got an ETA for the plane landing of 1920 Sunday! Still no detail about what time we would actually see him...we all wanted to scream and some of us did :)

Sunday afternoon we headed over to the base (in our matching t-shirts) to get our visitor passes and found the building where the reception would be. I feel like we were there for 5 hours waiting patiently...oh wait, we WERE there for 5 hours! Every time we saw headlights off in the distance, people stood up just to find out it wasn't what we were waiting for. 4 huge troop transport trucks came down the road but they were empty. An 18-wheeler arrived with a load of packs, and you could tell the veteran families, because as the packs were being unloaded, they dug through the pile to get the one belonging to their son/brother/husband rather than waiting to dig through the huge pile when the troops finally showed up.

FINALLY, at 130am Monday morning, 4 charter buses pulled around the corner in the distance and someone started the slow clap...Bonnie, Ashley, and I held up our signs and waited for the buses to pull up. As soon as we saw the first 4 or 5 guys exit the bus, I thought we would never find Billy because with matching uniforms, hats, and haircuts, all those Marines looked alike! I guess he saw our sign because he walked up to us right away and we pretty much attacked him with hugs! The smile on his face when he saw his family made the whole weekend, fighting, frustrations, and all, worth it!

We got to spend a couple of hours with him before we had to get a few hours sleep before driving home Monday morning. He'll be home on the 18th for a few weeks, so everyone will get to spend much more time with him then...

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Wow. If you've never experienced a 3-day Basic Compliance School, you definitely should! My brain is now 90% full of semi-useless information. I liked it much better before, when it was 62% full of completely useless information. This new type makes me think long and hard about every financial transaction I've ever entered into.

My dad would love this stuff...he's a lifetime learner.

Let me clarify - this is great information that I will use in my career and I appreciate the opportunity...but it is a lot of information and detail that I probably will not be able to recall at a moment's notice. I'M GEEKING OUT just a little.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Shirts and signs are finished! Once we were home from the beach and had cleaned up a little, Bonnie, Ashley and I went on a mission for supplies. We drove to the Quantico Marine Corps Museum to find some USMC patches and then headed to ACMoore for the shirts, iron-on letters, and stuff to make signs...

We got enough shirts for everyone in their family who is going to Camp LeJeune this weekend, plus me - is it weird for me to wear a shirt with someone else's family name on it? When they were finished, we wrapped them up like little packages to present this weekend to their family - hopefully it will remain a surprise until then!

Saturday we went to Fossil Beach in Westmoreland State Park to hunt for fossils! Ashley and Daniel go all the time and invited us to go with them. We hiked down the 0.8 mile trail to get to the beach (wasn't so easy going back up).

Daniel and his brother were already down there getting an early start at low tide because it's the best time to find shark teeth on the beach. We set up our chairs and packed lunches and walked around, taking in the scenery and then we found a spot on the beach to start hunting. I laid down on the beach on my stomach and just skimmed my hand over the top layer of sand the teeth are just below the surface. I probably looked pretty weird, but I found 5 small teeth.

Ashley found a bunch of stuff and Bonnie was hunting for sea glass to add to her collection. Daniel took a colander and was wading by the shore, sifting through loads of sand. I think he found a porpoise ear bone and a whale vertebrae. We planned on asking the park ranger to confirm, but he wasn't at the visitor center when we were done hunting for the day.

Towards the end of the day, a girl came running down the beach to her parents saying she found a message in a bottle! We overheard her say the bottle was from 2007 so it couldn't have been regarding buried pirate treasure, but HOW COOL! She had some trouble getting the message out of the bottle because she didn't want to break the glass on the beach, so her father used a stick to retrieve it (all the while with a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth - a multi-tasker!). She and her sisters read the message and just laughed, but we didn't ask what it said. Once the treasure was ruled out, we lost a little bit of interest :)

It took me 80 minutes to get to work today - it normally takes me 25-35, depending on traffic. Apparently no one in the southside knows that when it's been raining for 2 days and you're in your car, you're supposed to turn your lights on, slow down, and open up your eyes. I must have passed 5 accidents on Midlo...

Then on Robious, mud from a construction site was running out into the road so it was flooded. Robious is only 2 lanes so once you're in a line of cars stopped, there's NO WAY OUT...

Finally someone grew a pair and went across the stream...once we all realized that he got across safely we slowly inched across. Probably dangerous, but if you can't turn around and there are no other roads in sight, what can you do?

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Today, Bonnie and Ashley and I took a road trip to Lynchburg to pick up Ashley's wedding dress!

We got up early despite staying up late last night addressing Ashley's wedding invitations (and by addressing, I mean Bonnie addressed as I watched and coveted her handwriting). We determined the GPS route would be the one we use, ignoring Nate's claim that TomTom tried to kill him last weekend in Pennsylvania - something about it telling him to drive straight into a brick wall and urging him to make 2 consecutive U-turns (doesn't that mean he ended up going in the same direction he was originally going?). The trip there was pretty uneventful - not much to look at through Amelia and Farmville...

Ashley's mom and other sister met at the bridal shop and we all piled on the comfy viewing couch in the bridal shop and waited while Ashley put her dress on. She has been adamant that none of us knew the style, color, or any other details of her dress until her first fitting, which was today. We had a hint at the style when we picked out our bridesmaid dress and she implied that it was the same basic silhouette of her dress (picture of BM dress below), but I was not prepared for how unique her dress is! She looked so happy when she put it on today and she is going to be beautiful on her wedding day!

It would be wrong to post any details here - Daniel is not allowed to know anything about the dress until he sees her walk down the aisle, and I WILL NOT be the one who spoils this surprise!

When she was finished with her fitting, we had lunch and did a little shopping. Then we drove around historic downtown Lynchburg to take pictures and soak up some history. We visited Point of Honor, Patrick Henry's personal physician's former home; and Old City Cemetery, where we saw an open-air coffin used for transferring unembalmed bodies (blech) along with graves as old as 1820's.

We tried to go antiquing but all the stores we tried to go in were either closed when the signs said they should be open, or were too full of junk to find a gem.

We decided we had learned enough for one day and headed home. We passed an Amish roadside stand so of course we turned around to check out the goodies. Good prices on the quilts they had on display, but a good price on an Amish-made quilt is still out of my price range. Plus, I plan on going to Lancaster in September, so I'll wait until then and buy one from a real homestead!

My dad has one, but he is smart and has tons of philosophical musings to share with the world. Kara has one, but she has a really cool life complete with tennis lessons, a baby on the way, and 2 poodles to give her plenty of ammunition for an entry at least once a week, if not daily! Dave has one on MySpace that he updates whenever something really good or really bad happens.

I'd like to set my blog up for success by not creating unrealistic expectations of how often I will post, and if/when I do post, how interesting said post will be.

I have 2 posts in mind for today, so this will be my trial run. Let me know if I need to be more interesting and I'll try to make up something.